Sleep Paralysis And Its Effects

Sleep Paralysis is pretty spooky, and real. I've read places that people see "shadow people" and other spooky things of the sorts. Does anybody have any sleep paralysis stories to share?

Why do we have sleep paralysis? Almost everyone has at least one episode in their lifetime. Sleep paralysis is one of the scariest, mysterious, things anyone can experience. It has you up the rest of the time wondering why it happened, or why you couldn’t do a thing at the moment you were having it. It is also known as rapid eye movement (REM). It is where you’re awake but your body is not. 5-60% of people have sleep paralysis.

Also known as night terrors, these episodes are often paired with other prarsomnias, such as sleepwalking. A Parasomnia is an undesired occurrence during sleep, such as sleep talking, sleep walking, and night terrors. During these sleep terror episodes, an individual might kick and thrash around while still unconscious, stare wide eyed, scream or shout, and so on. Night terrors are said to be able to occur for a period of up to 30 minutes, once about that much time has passed, the person will once again lye down and go to sleep. Once the next day comes around the corner, usually the child or adult will not have any recollection of the event, but they at times remember small fragments of the

Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).

Sleep paralysis goes by many different names, and one famously known name for it is Old Hag Syndrome. For some people who have had episodes of sleep paralysis, they might have experienced an inanimate being known as the old hag. The hag has been said to sit on your chest while you are frozen, crushing your chest and making it hard to breathe until the episode is over and you are able to move. “In Newfoundland sleep paralysis has been called an attack of ‘Old Hag’” (Heffron, Thomas). In a paper by N C. Ness, multiple people had reported of seeing the same old hag on their chests while being paralyzed, and by the description of each of their encounters, researches were able to trace back the old hag to the clinical condition, sleep paralysis.

Narcolepsy (narco meaning “numbness” and lepsy meaning “seizure”) consists primarily of attacks of irresistible sleepiness in the daytime. The patients day is broken up by a series of brief and repetitive sleep attacks, perhaps even two hundred attacks in a single day. These transient, strong attacks may last from a few seconds to as much as thirty minutes, with an average spell lasting two minutes. When a patient suddenly gets the urge to sleep, it is practically impossible for them to ignore that they are suffering an attack, in any situation. These sleep attacks happen uncontrollably, and in any situation or place. People with narcolepsy typically fall asleep suddenly, on the job, in conversation, standing up, and even while eating, driving, or making love. (Matzen 2016, p.1) Many individuals with Narcolepsy are extremely sleepy all day, regardless of how much sleep they got the night before. One of the more prominent and troubling features of Narcolepsy is Cataplexy. Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone that causes the person to quickly collapse. More than seventy percent of people with Narcolepsy suffer from Cataplexy. Cataplexy may consist of all the muscles or only a select few, so the severity may range from total collapse to the ground to partial collapse of a limb or the jaw. The Cataplectic (patient) sometimes remains

I went to bed as usual that night it was dark and windy outside I fell asleep

Fear comes in all shapes and forms, be it a natural disaster, paranormal event, or a dangerous situation, it never fails to give us chills. When i was younger, i had a very scary event happen to me. It was a rainy and windy night and I was facetiming a friend, and she had just told me that there was a man looking into my front door windows, and when i looked up i saw that there was indeed a man in the window. I ran to my mom’s room, she called the sheriff and after they looked around and came back to us, they showed us a picture. The picture was of an outline of a pair of shoes (on our driveway) that were completely dry, even when rain poured on them.

It's hard to sleep at night when there's so many thoughts going through your head although sleep dread is not a thought but a disorder in a terrified state. Have you ever struggled on falling asleep because of the nightmares that you might experience? Or because you might feel like you're going to die while you are sleeping ? Let me tell you that you're not the only one. You are not alone. Sleep dread is a sleep disorder that affects 40% of the population one time or another. People do not seek treatment for this disorder. They believe this is normal until it takes over your life. Another word for sleep dread is Insomnia. Insomnia is " A habitual sleeplessness; inability to sleep." Sleep dread is becoming

How often does sleep paralysis happen, is it more susceptible to a certain type of people, and what are factors that can cause sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis was nothing new to him and he'd long ago lost that deep panic that comes with not being able to move even a single muscle after waking up fully aware in the middle of the night, but this time something was wrong. The fear he'd felt for so long had eventually turned into annoyance, but in this moment, he felt it rising back into his consciousness.

Somnambulism or sleepwalking is a major reason many people wake up with unexplainable bruises or are wearing an outfit they don’t remember putting on. Sleepwalking falls under the wide umbrella of sleep disorders called parasomnias, or anything that can go amiss during sleep. Although the category is similar, somnambulism differs from night terrors. Sufferers are not in fact acting out their dreams but simply moving due to confusion in the central nervous system (Guilleminault, 2006). Many facets go into explaining what sleepwalking actually is and what is transpiring in the brain. General knowledge about somnambulism is important due to the reality that so many Americans are affected. Knowledge of this topic should begin with the causes of this sleep disorder, where and when it occurs, what happens during an episode, the many things that can go wrong, and what to look for to see if you or someone you know could suffer from sleepwalking.

12 "Sleep Paralysis." 6 The Lancet, 341.8842 (1993): 406-407. Ness, R C. 4 "The Old Hag Phenomenon as Sleep Paralysis: A Biocultural Interpretation." Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 2.1 (1978): 15-39.

In ancient times, science was not as developed nor was there technology like we have today. Science has evolved over the years and has helped manifest explanations for everyday occurrences. However, a lack of these justifications leads people into creating these extraordinary tails and myths to help provide explanations for what they did not comprehend. Sleep paralysis is an exemplary event that caused an uproar and a pinnacle moment in the culture of myths. It is an occurrence that had no proper scientific explanation which lead to the conception of grotesque tails that haunted people for centuries and still do today.

At night, you lock the house down, tuck the kids into bed, clean your home, and you might even finish some last minute work. I bet you never thought about the things that can happen at night. As we kiss our children goodnight, our favorite line is “Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”. You never thought about your son sleepwalking through the night or even your daughter screaming out her sleep. What about your twins, who are both, having nightmares! Let us think about one more thing, did you even know that this could happen to anyone at any age, even you. Many Americans around the world lack the knowledge of realizing how important sleep really is. The lack of sleep can cause short-term and long-term health problems.